Re: help with ftp site please
Quoting dkphoto (dkphoto@cyber-wire.com):
> I am trying to download a basic package for the 68K Mac from the Debian
> ftp site and could use some help please.
>
> Files seem to be spread all over with no rhyme or reason. As a result I
> can't be sure what I need or where to find it (and I've installed Debian
> once before and BSD once too). There seems to be a basic package that is
> not clearly labeled as such (just "Debian") and is, to my way of
> thinking, way too small to be a full basic install. (About 14 megs
> stuffed, including the Base2.1gz file which of course was somewhere else
> on the ftp site. WHY?WHY?WHY?).
I think you might have missed the installation guide in
debian/dists/slink/main/disks-m68k/current/mac/install.txt which
tells you which files you need to get started, viz.
* mac/install.sit.hqx (StuffIt archive of the installation files),
or
* mac/Debian-m68k-2.1-Mac.img.hqx (DiskCopy 4.2 image of the 'rescue'
floppy), and
* mac/resc1440.bin ('rescue' floppy image)
* mac/drv1440.bin ('drivers' floppy image)
* common/base2_1.tgz
base is in the common/ directory because all the other m68k machines
use it too.
> The minimalist information on the web
> site also seems to suggest very strongly that there are no man pages
> included with the above "package", but that the man pages must be
> downloaded separately, also difficult to make sense of, from a separate
> page.
If you look in common/, you will see that people who are installing
from floppies have to download 7 (or 13) more floppies. Were the
man pages included, this number would increase dramatically.
The installation uses a bootstrap principle, where the first
rescue disk contains enough to run a linux system on a file system
in memory, which builds the small linux system on disk, which can
then download the packages (by ftp, CD etc.) you need to build the
type of system you want.
The multiple pages, or directories, are designed to keep the huge
number of package files organised into manageably-sized directories,
by distributions, licence categories, chip architectures, etc.
> The packages page took me a couple of hours to find at all, then
> when I did, it made little sense. I opened the X windows page and found
> everything in there EXCEPT X windows!!! Unless the Debian folks have
> performed a Guiness class miracle in compact software design, Xwindows is
> certainly not contained in the "Debian" package, it also isn't in the X
> folder of the ftp site, so can anyone give me a clue as to where it might
> be?
I'm not sure what you mean by the X windows page or the "Debian" package
or the X folder. The X packages are in
debian/dists/slink/main/binary-m68k/x11/ but using dselect (which the
installation process automatically starts) avoids your having to type
all that.
> Why on earth can't they put together some basic packages and clearly
> label them?:
>
> 1. minimal system install
> 2. full system install
> 3. full system + Xwindows install
> 4. all the other stuff you might need or want thrown in a box
If the installation dialogues are the same for macs as x86, you
will be asked for a machine "profile" just before entering dselect,
though it's not obligatory to choose one.
> Do they really think that someone wanting to install Linux might not want
> the man pages? Is that why they are off in some other corner of the web
> site?
See above. What appears to be a "corner" is "the right place" for
dselect to find it, according to your chosen distribution, architecture,
etc.
> I can accept the argument, "Linux is difficult to install." I can
> also accept the argument that, "Linux is difficult to learn." But I find
> it hard to accept the argument that, "Because they're Linux files, it is
> difficult to clearly organize and label them on the ftp site."
The "labelling" is via the Packages files which are designed for
programs like dselect to read and present to the user.
> Thanks for letting me blow off steam. And TIA for helping me make sense
> out of this gibberish.
So the intention is not that you peruse the directories (though you can
do that if you're familiar with them), but to get the disks-m68k files
you need, and then use the tools as they present themselves.
Good luck.
Cheers,
--
Email: d.wright@open.ac.uk Tel: +44 1908 653 739 Fax: +44 1908 655 151
Snail: David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA
Disclaimer: These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify
official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.
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